Funding & Investment in Travel

Fintech Comeback? IPOs Reignite Investor Optimism, But VC Funding Still Trails 2021 Highs

Published

19 hours ago

July 17, 2025

Global venture funding to fintech startups nudged up in the first half of 2025 to its highest levels in several quarters but remains far below its post-pandemic highs, Crunchbase data shows.

Total global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $22 billion in H1, per Crunchbase data. That’s an 11.1% increase from the second half of 2024, and up 5.3% compared to the $20.9 billion raised in the first half of last year.

Despite the modest gains, the H1 amount is the most raised by fintech startups in the past few comparable timelines. In the first half of 2023, they raised a collective $27 billion.

For context, the numbers are still significantly lower than the peak of $68.7 billion raised in the first half of 2021.

They’re also still lower than even pre-pandemic sums. Fintech startups raised a combined $40.3 billion in the first half of 2018, $25.4 billion in H1 2019, and $26.3 billion in the first half of 2020.

Deal flow, however, was down significantly — signaling fewer, but larger rounds. The first half of 2025 saw 1,805 deals consummated, a 31.4% decline from the more than 2,633 completed in H1 2024 and down slightly — by 10.2% — from the more than 2,000 announced in H2 2024.

IPO breakthrough

One thing that could work in fintech’s favor in the short term is that the IPO dam finally seems to have broken in 2025.

Since the beginning of the year, several companies in the fintech space have either gone public or filed to do so.

This matters for the private market since startup funding often follows the lead of public counterparts. If a number of fintech companies have impressive debuts on the public exchanges, that can only bode well for the private market.

In early June, shares of Circle closed up 168% at $83.29 in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, minting the stablecoin issuer with a market cap of around $16.7 billion and renewing hopes for an IPO market rebound. As of July 14, the stock had more than doubled from its first-day closing — trading at over $200 per share.
Digital bank Chime went public on June 12, and came out swinging. Chime’s shares shot up 37% in first-day trading on Nasdaq, closing at $37. As of July 14, the stock was trading at around $30.

Meanwhile, digital wealth management startup Wealthfront on June 23 filed confidentially for a U.S. initial public offering. And in early June, crypto exchange Gemini confidentially filed its own plans for a U.S. IPO. Expense management firm Navan (formerly TripActions) also filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO in June.

However, despite filing for a U.S. IPO last year, Swedish buy now, pay later giant Klarna put the brakes on those plans, citing concerns over President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariffs.

Active investors and bigger deals

To get insight into who’s funding all these fintech startups, Crunchbase took a look at the most active investors in the space.

Alexandria, Virginia-based QED Investors took the top spot for leading or co-leading rounds of more than $5 million into fintech companies in the first half of 2025. The firm’s exclusive focus is fintech investing.

Other active investors in the space include Sequoia Capital, Hack VC, Accel and Polychain.

As mentioned earlier, the fact that the sector experienced an increase in funding despite a lower deal count indicates that the first half of 2025 saw a number of large rounds.

All told, there were more than three dozen deals totaling $100 million or more that took place in the fintech space in the first half of 2025, Crunchbase data shows. Crypto exchange Binance raised the most money by far — a $2 billion venture round led by MGX in mid-March. Other large deals include infrastructure platform Plaid’s $575 million raise in early April; U.K. payments platform Rapyd’s $500 million haul in mid-March; HR and payroll startup Rippling’s $450 million Series G in May; and online banking startup Mercury’s $300 million Series C round in late March.

Speaking of large rounds, the investors that led or co-led rounds greater than $230 million differed some from the list above. MGX took the top spot, with Sequoia, Franklin Templeton, Paradigm and Founders Fund rounding out the top five.

‘A real sense of momentum returning’

QED Investors partner Camila Vieira said her firm is “cautiously optimistic” that fintech is on its way to making a comeback.

“There’s a real sense of momentum returning, particularly in B2B infrastructure, AI-native fintech and climate-aligned financial services,” she told Crunchbase News. “The market feels more grounded, and founders are building with stronger fundamentals from the outset.”

QED’s investment pace has remained steady, but with one notable difference. It’s become “even more selective,” Vieira said, “focusing on higher-quality opportunities, especially at the Series A and B stages.”

She added: “We’re spending more time with companies that show real traction, capital efficiency and readiness to scale, even in today’s tighter environment.”

QED remains cautious on consumer-facing fintechs “that lack a clear wedge,” particularly mono-product neobanks or lenders “overly reliant on paid acquisition and margin-based competition.”

“The bar for differentiation is significantly higher today,” said Vieira. “That said, we continue to see exciting consumer models where companies own distribution or have access to proprietary data.”

AI spurring fintech ‘super cycle’

Neil Kapur, partner at Atlanta-based TTV Capital, acknowledges that “some dollars have moved away from fintech.”

Still, the firm is trying to not let the noise impact the positive signals it’s seeing in the sector.

“We know that in the short term the market will produce some volatility around potential investments; but on a longer time horizon, we see significant opportunity in financial services broadly,” he told Crunchbase News. “In the past year, there has been a round of IPOs, M&A and consolidation — in some cases, producing positive outcomes for investors, and in others, enabling company survival.”

Notably, many of the investments TTV made in the first half of 2025 are companies that were founded less than two years ago. In fact, its volume of newly closed investments in 2025 has increased by 3x vs. last year due to what the firm perceives as “an overall increase in both company quality and investment activity.”

In Kapur’s view, it’s clear that AI has kicked off “a super cycle” and will be “transformational” as a new enabling technology.

“We all agree that AI will revolutionize the financial services industry; the big question is when,” he said.

The firm also is bullish on consumer fintech despite some of the negative sentiment around the segment.

“We still see unending potential,” Kapur said. “Just look at Revolut’s latest numbers and the rumors surrounding their upcoming fundraise.”

The firm is also seeing traction from non-AI-native companies in categories that may be overlooked by investors, but still operate in “massive revenue and profit pools” such as lending.

Sheel Mohnot, co-founder and general partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, is resoundingly enthusiastic in his belief that fintech is in fact having a comeback year.

“It feels like every company that survived is doing incredibly well after suffering for a couple of years,” he told Crunchbase News. “We never stepped off the gas because we have always believed in the sector.”

Like many other investors, Mohnot believes that there is still a lot of opportunity where AI meets fintech.

“There are just so many things that AI can help solve,” he said, noting that BTV continues to be excited about embedded fintech, particularly in the banking, payroll and accounting segments.

Mohnot is less bullish on stablecoins. While he concedes they can solve some problems “really well,” he thinks “there are way too many people trying to solve things with stablecoins that probably won’t be solved with stablecoins … like payments in the U.S.”

IPOs, M&A and a higher bar for funding

Looking ahead, Mohnot predicts more generalist funds will be tip-toeing back into fintech after sitting out 2023 and 2024. He also expects we’ll see even more companies going public in 2026, and continued consolidation “as some 2021‑era Series B startups sell or merge once post‑pandemic tailwinds fade.”

He added: “I think we’ll also see AI everywhere — not much distinction between an AI fintech and a fintech company.”

Jeremy Jonker, co-founder and managing partner at Infinity Ventures, agrees there’s definitely more energy in the market compared to the past couple of years.

“Rounds are getting aggressively preempted, M&A seems to be picking up, and IPO chatter is back,” he said. “However, this rebound appears selective as the companies getting rewarded now tend to be the ones with strong fundamentals. The growth‑at‑all‑costs era has faded. …The bar remains very high.”

For its part, Infinity Ventures is focused on areas where it believes startups are positioned to out-execute and take share from incumbents and later-stage companies. Agentic workflows in regulated industries are a good example, Jonker said.

“We’re less interested in generic LLM wrappers that are relying solely on distribution or abstract use cases that never make it into real workflows,” he said.

In general, Jonker believes that AI has become foundational in fintech, and not just a feature.

“We’re seeing it used to automate dense, rules-based workflows in regulated industries, power agentic systems that can trigger actions without human input, and unlock new ways to serve customers with fewer resources,” he told Crunchbase News. “The hype cycle is still noisy, but the real impact is happening where AI is embedded deep in the workflow, tied to proprietary data, and driving tangible productivity gains.”

David Mort, general partner at Propel, believes that fintech is in fact already having a comeback year thanks to a few tailwinds including the impact of AI, the growing intersection between traditional financial services and cryptocurrencies, and the successful launches of products and services from companies established over a decade ago, including Coinbase, Robinhood, Revolut and Nubank.

“Excitement has returned to the fintech space, and we owe it to these three tailwinds,” he told Crunchbase News.

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China’s Duku Highway sees tourism boom in summer

Published

59 minutes ago

July 18, 2025

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An aerial drone photo taken on July 15, 2025 shows a section of the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

The 561-kilometer highway connects Dushanzi in the north of Xinjiang with Kuqa City in the south, running through varied landscapes that include canyons, glaciers, lakes and grasslands. (Xinhua/Zhang Keren)

An aerial drone photo taken on July 17, 2025 shows the scenery along the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

An aerial drone photo shows a vehicle in a canyon near the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 17, 2025. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

An aerial drone photo taken on July 15, 2025 shows the scenery along the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

An aerial drone photo shows tourists visiting a canyon near the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 17, 2025. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

An aerial drone photo taken on July 16, 2025 shows a section of the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

Tourists riding camels visit a canyon near the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 17, 2025. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

This photo taken on July 15, 2025 shows a section of the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

An aerial drone photo taken on July 16, 2025 shows a grassland by the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

A man poses for a photo at a service area of the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 15, 2025. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

An aerial drone photo shows vehicles on the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 15, 2025. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

This aerial drone photo shows tourists visiting a canyon near the Duku Highway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 17, 2025. Northwest China’s Duku Highway, considered one of the most scenic roads in the country, sees a tourism boom in the summer.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)

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Funding & Investment in Travel

Curacao Sees Surge in Tourism and Business Growth in 2025

Published

2 hours ago

July 18, 2025

Charlotte Bennett

WILLEMSTAD, CURACAO — Curacao is becoming an important spot for travelers and investors as it experiences a notable boost in tourism and business initiatives. Recent data shows that the island welcomed 57,412 stayover visitors in June 2025, a 15 percent rise from the previous year, according to the Curaçao Tourist Board.

This increase highlights Curacao’s growing appeal as a top travel destination, well-known for its vibrant culture and diverse activities. Many tourists are taking advantage of attractive flight deals, with tickets starting around $442. Airlines like Copa Airlines provide reliable options, connecting Miami to the island and supporting travelers from across Latin America.

The hospitality scene in Curacao is thriving as well, offering luxury accommodations for those looking for a high-end experience. The Renaissance Curacao Resort and Casino in Willemstad showcases elegant facilities, various dining options, and amenities such as a private beach and an infinity pool.

Beyond tourism, Curacao is demonstrating its commitment to community welfare with initiatives like the Essential Assistance Program. This effort provides free household goods and grocery support for families in need, aiming for inclusive economic growth.

The island is also known for its culinary innovations, including Combier Curaçao Le Bleu, the world’s first Premium Blue Curacao. This product highlights Curacao’s dedication to quality and appeals to both residents and visitors.

Visitors can explore Curacao with numerous excursions, including tours at the Curaçao Liqueur Distillery and Klein Curacao day trips that feature premium BBQ lunch options. These activities enhance the unique cultural experience available to tourists.

As families plan vacations, Curacao is competing well with other Caribbean hot spots like St. Thomas and Aruba. With its cultural richness and leisure opportunities, it remains an attractive choice for diverse family experiences.

Analysts foresee continued visitor growth, supported by strategic initiatives and the island’s charm. As Curacao progresses, it strives to provide exceptional experiences for both tourists and locals, solidifying its role as a leading Caribbean destination.

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Funding & Investment in Travel

DRC’s maiden “World Music and Tourism Festival” officially opened by President Tshisekedi

Published

3 hours ago

July 18, 2025

Gifty Owusu-amoah

Fally Ipupa headlines electrifying first night as Congo takes centre stage in global celebration of music and culture.

The rhythm of Congolese Rumba echoed through the capital on Wednesday as President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo officially opened the first-ever World Music and Tourism Festival in Kinshasa, setting the tone for a landmark event that merges culture, tourism, and diplomacy under the theme “The Rumba Route for Peace.”

The opening ceremony, held at the Central African Cultural and Arts Centre (CCAPAC), brought together cultural leaders, artists, international partners, and dignitaries from across the globe. President Tshisekedi thanked the Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili and his team at of UN Tourism for partnering with the Congolese government to bring the maiden edition of the festival to life, noting that the DRC would leverage this platform to promote peace, unity, and tourism development.

In his first official visit to the DRC, Pololikashvili addressed a packed hall of dignitaries, artists, cultural leaders and Congolese citizens. In a deeply personal and forward-looking speech, he noted that “it is a great honour to join you in Kinshasa, a city full of rhythm and energy.”

“Today, the DRC is making history. You are not only hosting a festival. You are sharing Congolese Rumba with the world. This music, recognised by UNESCO, tells the story of your people. It is a living link between Africa and the Americas.”

He also stressed the global significance of the festival. “Both music and tourism are instruments of peace. They break down barriers, foster understanding, and remind us of our common humanity. This festival shows what African tourism can be – inclusive, authentic, and proudly rooted in culture.”

The official opening was elevated by stirring choral performances and traditional Congolese music and dance, which brought vibrancy and local flavour to the ceremony in a rich cultural setting. The audience – made up of government officials, cultural leaders, international partners, and artists – was visibly moved by the authentic expressions of Congolese identity and artistry.

After the ceremony, President Tshisekedi led high-level dignitaries to tour the Cultural Village, an immersive exhibition space showcasing Congolese fashion, crafts, gastronomy and visual arts.

As the sun set, the celebration continued with a massive open-air concert headlined by Fally Ipupa at the People’s Palace, on the forecourt of the National Assembly.

Drawing thousands of people, the show blended Rumba’s timeless melodies with urban rhythm and pop flair, bringing Kinshasa to life and marking a thrilling conclusion to Day 1. Fally’s performance – powerful, polished and deeply rooted in tradition – embodied the spirit of the festival: Congolese excellence with global resonance.

On Day 2 – Thursday, July 17

Day 2 of the World Music and Tourism Festival will focused on dialogue, innovation, and industry development at the Central African Cultural and Arts Centre (CCAPAC). Key highlights included “Transatlantic Rhythms for Peace,” a high-level roundtable exploring music as a tool for diplomacy between Africa, the Americas and beyond, as well as the “Fair Play” session, which tackled issues around copyright, artist rights, and equitable participation in the music tourism economy.

A dedicated masterclass also provided artists and stakeholders with practical insights into intellectual property and sustainable business models.

Additional sessions explored music’s role in destination branding through the panel “Music at the Heart of Tourism,” and how digital platforms and youth-led innovation were reshaping the creative landscape in “From Vinyl to Viral.”

A fireside chat with renowned Congolese musician Jean Goubald Kalala, moderated by Kojo Bentum-Williams, will offer a personal perspective on the evolution of Congolese Rumba.

The World Music and Tourism Festival continues through Friday 18 July, with Kinshasa proudly at its centre – where the beat of Rumba becomes the heartbeat of peace.

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